When it comes to the diet, everyone has different goals. Just as some of us focus on losing weight and becoming leaner, others are more interested in building mass and growing in size. This is what we call ‘bulking’.

Bulking also happens to be much easier for some people than it is for others. If you are naturally an ectomorph, then that will make it hard for you to increase your weight and to grow and you will likely find that you’re naturally very slim and light.

There are ways to get around this though and it all has to do with the way you eat. Here are some points to consider…

You Need Energy

One of the positive sides of being an ectomorph is that it means you have free reign to really enjoy your carbs! In fact, carbs are necessary if you’re going to increase your muscle mass as the body actually needs a lot of energy in order to create and store muscle!

You Need Protein

Of course you also need to consume plenty of protein to gain muscle. After all, this is what muscle is made out of.

The general advice given when it comes to building muscle is that you should aim to consume 1 gram of protein for every 1 pound of bodyweight. If you do this and train intensively, then you’ll grow in size and strength.

Timing May be Important

One factor of dieting that often gets overlooked is timing (although this is the entire focus of other diets such as carb backloading or intermittent fasting). Timing is important when it comes to building muscle though, because the protein needs to be available right when your body is highest in anabolic hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone.

There are two times when you’ll be in this anabolic state: when you go to bed and approximately one hour after training. Keep in mind though that protein takes time to be absorbed by the body!

You Need to Rest

Another thing to keep in mind when aiming to bulk is that your body needs to rest. The more rested you are, the more anabolic you become – whereas when you exert yourself you are breaking down tissue and ‘catabolic’.

To grow, you need to start training and eating like a lion. Train just enough to stimulate growth and spend the rest of the time relaxing and eating!

For many of us, this doesn’t exactly bring to mind a gourmet meal. Instead, you might think of healthy foods as being those typical ‘low fat’ sandwiches or crisps that have had all the moisture sucked out of them. Maybe you think of bread that is about as thin (and tasty) as a piece of cardboard!

Whatever the case though, healthy food doesn’t actually have to be this way. In fact healthy food should be all the stuff that you really want to eat. After all, this food is meant to be really good for you; so it makes sense that it would be tasty and satisfying!

Where Diet Food Goes Wrong

Diet food unfortunately is completely unhelpful for the most part. This is food that has had the fat removed from it, based on the incorrect belief that fat causes heart problems. We now know that fat is actually good for us and even slows down the absorption of sugar as well!

What’s more, is that it’s fat that makes us feel fuller! And while it contains more calories, this simply means we need to eat less of it – and less of everything else as well.

What Healthy Food Really Looks Like

The first clue that healthy food should actually be tasty and even indulgent comes from the Mediterranean Diet. This is an entire continent of people who are in fantastic health despite eating a diet that would technically be considered unhealthy by many ‘experts’.

People on the Mediterranean Diet live longer and have great heart health – thanks to the saturated fat content and things like resveratrol found in red wine.

At the same time though, the Mediterranean Diet includes a ton of different fruits and vegetables all arranged beautifully on the plate and displaying a ton of vivid colors. Greek salad contains tomatoes, feta, cucumber and pepper and is packed with goodness!

Meanwhile, the inclusion of oil on top actually ensures that all those nutrients are absorbed better.

When you eat like this, you actually enjoy your food and you feel full and satiated. Thus you don’t get cravings or feel the need to snack and you also get to enjoy eating – the way you should!

It’s not just the Mediterranean Diet that offers these benefits of course. The take home message here is rather a very simple one: eat a varied diet and make sure you enjoy it!

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